.:H '  /^-^  ift^iuk:. 


WHAT  IS 
CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE? 


BY 


P.  C  WOLCOTT,  B.  a 


^  ./^.  /o 


^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  *^K 


Presented    by£^,  C/V^  vx^ \JVj  .  \^c7\\~\  }<  \  r-\ 


Division 


Section  


ft .Lu  J^  '^'-^'^^ 


WHAT  IS 

Christian  .-.  Science? 


APR  1 5  1910 


4 


AN  EXAMINATION  OF  ^  ^ 
THE  METAPHYSICAL,  ^  J. 
THE  THEOLOGICAL,  AND 
THE  THERAPEUTIC  J'  S  J. 
THEORIES  OF  THE  SYSTEM, 


By  P.  C.  VVOLCOTT,  B.  D., 

Rector  of  Trinity   Church,   Highlatid  Park,   Illinois 


FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 

New  YORK        .-.       Chicago        .-.        Toronto 


Copyrighted  1896  by  Fleming  H  Revell  Company. 


PREFACE. 

Since  this  little  treatise  was  so  fortunate  as 
to  win  the  approval  of  my  brethren  of  the 
clergy  to  whom  it  was  first  read,  I  have  been 
induced  to  publish  it,  in  order  that  its  sphere  of 
usefulness  may  be  widened. 

Among  the  many  books  and  lesser  publica- 
tions which  I  have  read  and  used  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  this  treatise,  I  desire  to  mention  the 
Kev.  Dr.  Buckley's  essay  on  ''Christian  Science 
and  Mind  Cure";  the  Eev.  H.  M.  Tenney's 
"Christian  Science,  its  Truths  and  Errors";  the 
essays  upon  the  same  subject  by  an  anonymous 
writer  in  "The  Churchman"  for  April  11th, 
and  May  2nd,  1896;  and  "Hypnotism"  by  Dr. 
Albert  Moll  of  Berlin. 

The  numbers  at  the  bottom  of  the  pages  refer 
to  the  pages  of  "Science  and  Health,"  89th 
edition,  1894,  unless  otherwise  stated. 

May  what  I  have  written  redound  to  the 
greater  glory  of  God. 

Highland  Park,  November  21st,  1896. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

The  period  which  immediately  preceded  and 
followed  the  introduction  of  Christianity  into 
the  world,  was  one  of  the  most  momentous  in 
the  history  of  our  race,  and  one  which  in  many 
ways  bears  a  close  resemblance  to  that  in  which 
we  live. 

It  was  characterized  by  the  most  splendid  in- 
tellectual civilization  known  to  history,  a  civili- 
zation which  our  own  closely  resembles,  but 
v/hich  was  marked  by  achievements  in  art,  liter- 
ature, and  philosophy,  to  which  we  have  not  yet 
attained. 

Like  our  own  it  was  a  period  of  great  wealth 
on  one  hand,  and  deep  poverty  on  the  other;  a 
time  of  reckless  luxury,  and  widespread  profli- 
gacy. 

Like  our  own  too,  it  was  a  time  of  general 
unrest  and  great  and  rapid  changes;  and  when 
St.  Paul  stood  on  Mar's  Hill,  those  forces  of 
disintegration  were  already  at  work,  which  were 

5 


6  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCEf 

destined  to  bring  to  the  ground  the  most  splen- 
did fabric  ever  reared  by  man. 

The  comparison  which  might  be  made  be- 
tween that  period  and  our  own,  suggests  many- 
impressive  lessons,  and  chief  among  them  is 
this:  that  as  Christianity  then  preserved  from 
destruction  all  that  was  fit  to  survive  the  cata- 
clysm which  overwhelmed  that  splendid  civili- 
zation, so  Christianity  is  the  hope  and  the  safe- 
guard of  our  Eepublic  to=day  in  the  midst  of 
those  perils  by  which  we  are  threatened. 

Among  the  most  marked  peculiarities  of  the 
period  of  which  we  are  speaking,  was  the  rise  of 
many  new  and  eccentric  systems  in  religion  and 
philosophy,  such  as  Gnosticism  and  Neo^Plato- 
nism. 

This  latter  was  an  attempt  to  revive  the  orig- 
inal Platonism,  and  was  the  final  effort  of  the 
ancient  philosophic  spirit,  and  marks  the  ex- 
haustion of  ancient  thinking,  and  the  disso- 
lution of  the  old  intellectual  systems.  It 
was  not  a  single  coherent  system,  but  followed 
various  lines  of  development,  and  issued  into 
many  curious  and  fantastic  schools  of  thought. 

Among  all  Neo=Platonists  there  was  exhibited 
a  tendency  to  mysticism,  theosophy,  and  magic. 
Some  claimed  special  divine  illumination  and 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCES  7 

power  to  work  miracles.  They  professed  to  be 
hierophants  as  well  as  philosophers,  and  repre- 
sented a  Pagan  copy  of  Christianity. 

Whoever  cares  to  do  so  may  read  of  the  ab- 
surd vagaries  and  extravagancies  into  which  the 
men  of  that  day  rushed,  of  the  mysticism,  and 
ecstacy,  and  wonder  working  which  marked 
their  eccentric  forms  of  belief  and  practice;  of 
their  credulity  and  their  exaggeration  of  the 
subjective;  their  dependence  upon  visions  and 
dreams,  oracles  and  wonders.^  Immediately  one 
is  reminded  of  the  similar  forms  of  error  which 
prevail  so  widely  to-day,  and  which,  occurring 
in  a  period  presenting  similar  social  and  intel- 
lectual characteristics,  are  apparently  due  to 
similar  causes,  and  if  unchecked,  will  issue  into 
similar  results.  Spiritualism,  Mesmerism,  Hyp- 
notism, Theosophy,  Faith  Healing,  Christian 
Science,  and  a  dozen  others  are  all  manifesta- 
tions of  this  same  spirit  of  unrest. 

All  present  novelties  in  speculation  and  prac- 
tice, and  all  exhibit  various  degrees  of  diver- 
gence from  that  calm  and  sane  standard  of 
thought  and  practice  which  is  characteristic  of 
the  religion  of  Christ. 

It  is  my  purpose  in  this  treatise  to  discuss 

^Vide  Schwegler's  "History  of  Philosophy,"  §  xxi. 


8  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE f 

Christian  Science,  one  of  the  latest  and  most 
active  of  these  systems,  and  one  especially  dan- 
gerous, in  that  it  claims  to  represent  the  mind 
of  our  Divine  Master,  and  is  so  cunningly  de- 
vised that  it  is  calculated  to  deceive,  if  possible, 
the  very  elect.  It  comes  as  a  tempter  offering 
to  man  to-day  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge, 
and  of  the  tree  of  life. 

We  hold  it  as  an  axiom  that  no  system  of  be- 
lief can  have  power  over  the  hearts  and  minds 
of  men,  except  it  have  within  it  elements  of 
truth,  from  which  it  proceeds  by  wrong  methods 
and  false  deductions  to  mistaken  conclusions. 
It  would  be  both  uncharitable  and  unphilo- 
sophic  to  ascribe  to  the  teachers  of  this,  or  any 
similar  system,  a  purpose  to  deceive  those  they 
teach,  or  to  lead  them  into  errors  of  belief  or 
practice;  rather,  they  are  those  unlearned  and 
unstable  souls  of  whom  St.  Peter  speaks,  who 
wrest  the  truth  into  error,  and  having  in  them- 
selves no  steadfastness,  draw  others  after  them 
to  the  denial  of  the  faith,  and  to  their  own  de- 
struction. 

In  taking  up  the  study  of  so^^called  Christian 
Science,  we  must  determine  first  of  all,  to  be 
fair  to  it,  and  so  far  as  we  may,  to  separate  what 
is  true  in  it  from  what  is  false,  what  is  perma- 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  9 

nent,  from  what  if  left  to  itself  must  shortly 
come  to  naught. 

Christian  Science  is  a  metaphysical  system 
Vv^hich  professes  to  interpret  the  science  of  life 
as  revealed  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  claims  to  free 
men  from  the  power  of  sin,  disease  and  death. 

In  examining  it,  it  is  natural  that  we  should 
consider  first  its  metaphysics,  second,  its  theol- 
ogy, and  third,  its  therapeutics. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  METAPHYSICS  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE. 

About  thirty  years  ago,  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G. 
Eddy  discovered,  according  to  her  own  state- 
ment, "  The  Science  of  Metaphysical  Healing," 
and  named  it  "  Christian  Science." 

"  When  apparently  near  the  confines  of  mor- 
tal existence,  standing  already  within  the  sha- 
dow of  the  death  valley,"  there  flashed  upon 
her  the  "discovery  that  erring,  mortal,  mis- 
named mind  produces  all  the  organism  and  ac- 
tion of  the  mortal  body,"  whatever  that  may 
mean,  "  and  led  up  to  the  demonstration  of  the 
proposition  that  Mind  is  All,  and  matter  is 
naught,  as  the  leading  factor  in  Mind^science." 
"  Christian  Science,"  she  continues,  "  reveals 
incontrovertibly  that  Mind  is  All-in-all,  that 
the  only  realities  are  the  divine  Mind  and  Idea. 
This  great  fact  is  not,  however,  seen  to  be  sup- 
ported by  sensible  evidence,  until  its  principle 
is  demonstrated  by  healing  the  sick,  and  thus 
proven  absolute  and  divine."'  Christian  Science 

^"Science  and  Health,"  p.  3. 
10 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  11 

she  claims,  is  a  re-discovery  of  the  power  em- 
ployed by  Christ  in  healing  the  sick,  and  must 
be  accepted  and  believed  before  we  can  have  a 
right  understanding  of  Christian  truth  and  rev- 
elation. 

The  fundamentals  of  Christian  Science  as 
stated  by  the  discoverer  and  chief  teacher  of  the 
system,  are  summarized  in  four  propositions, 
which  to  her  appear  self- evident,  and  which  she 
further  states,  "will  be  found  to  agree  in  state- 
ment and  proof,  even  if  read  backward."  I  for 
one,  am  ready  to  agree  that  they  read  quite  as 
well  one  way  as  the  other.  The  four  proposi- 
tions are  as  follows:  A 

"I.  God  is  All.  ^ 

*'  II.  God  is  Good.     God  is  Mind. 

"III.  God,  Spirit,  being  all,  nothing  is  matter. 

"IV.  Life,  God,  omnipotent  Good,  deny  death, 
evil,  sin,  disease. — Disease  sin,  evil,  death,  deny 
Good,  omnipotent  God,  Life." 

"  The  metaphysics  of  Christian  Science,"  she 
continues,  "  like  the  rules  of  mathematics,  prove 
the  truth  by  inversion.  For  example:  there  is 
no  pain  in  Truth,  and  no  truth  in  pain;  no  mat- 
ter in  Mind,  and  no  mind  in  matter;  no  nerves 
in  Intelligence,  and  no  intelligence  in  nerves; 


11 


12  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

I  no  matter  in   Life,   and  no  life  in  matter;  no 
l'    matter  in  Good,  and  no  good  in  matter."^     How 
/    these  astonishing  and  incoherent  propositions, 
uttered   with   such  sententious  gravity,  can  be 
said  to  prove  anything,  is  not  plain  to  me,  al- 
though to  others  it  may  be.     It  reminds  me  of 
nothing  so  much,  as  of  that  saying  of  the  Duch- 
ess in  "Alice  in  Wonderland":  "  Never  imagine 
yourself  not  to  be  otherwise  than  what  it  might 
y   appear  to  others  that  what  you  were  or  might 
].  ■   have  been  was  not  otherwise  than  what  you  had 
L   been  would  have  appeared  to  them  to  be  other- 
\   >vise." 

\/  "Science  and  Health,"  the  remarkable  book 
/  of  more  than  600  pages,  from  which  I  have 
/I  quoted  these  statements  and  definitions,  has  re- 
cently passed  its  hundredth  edition,  which  indi- 
cates a  popularity  that  certainly  is  not  due  to  its 
literary  merits.  If  the  author  is  to  be  believed, 
this  is  the  only  true  and  authoritative  exposi- 
tion of  the  science  of  Metaphysical  Healing; 
indeed  she  is  severe  in  her  arraignment  of  all 
other  teachers  of  the  science  who  dissent  from 
her  teaching  at  any  point,  or  fail  to  acknowl- 
edge her  claims  to  originality  and  absolute 
truth.     She  practically  asserts  her  infallibility, 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  13 

saying:  "No  human  pen  or  tongue  taught  me 
the  science  contained  in  this  book,  Science  and  , 
Health,   and  neither  tongue  nor  pen  can  ever/'i 
overthrow  it." 

Of    the    literary    character    of    this    unique 
volume   some  idea  may  be  obtained  from  the 
passages  I  have  already  quoted,  and  to  one  un- 
der the  domination  of  what  the  author  charac- 
terizes as  "  mortal  mind,"  it  appears  to  be  be- 
neath  criticism,   since  it   is  written  without  a 
trace  of  literary  art,  and  is  without  a  single  re- 
deeming grace  of  style  to  relieve  the  tedium  of 
disjointed,   inconsequential,  dogmatic  and  ego- 
tistical assertion  and  repetition.    One  may  open\ 
the  book  almost  at  random  and  read  in  either  | 
direction  without  materially  modifying  the  char-  I 
acter  of  the  argument,  or  the  sequence  of  ideas.  / 
Of  argument,  indeed,  there  is  none  in  the  ordi- 
nary use  of  the  word,  since  the  entire  volume  is 
a  loose  bundle  of  disjointed  assertions,  based 
upon  an  ill-digested  conception  of  the  philoso-  / 
phy  of  Idealism. 

The  Idealism  of  Berkeley  is  evidently  the 
basis  of  the  metaphysics  of  Christian  Science,  but 
Mrs.  Eddy  anticipates  the  charge,  and  defends 
herself  against  it  by  saying:  "Those  who  for- 
merly sneered  at  it  as  foolish  and  eccentric,  now 


U  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCES 

declare  Bishop  Berkeley,  David  Hume,  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson,  certain  German  philosophers, 
or  some  unlearned  mesmerist  to  have  been  the 
real  originators  of  Mind  Healing.  Emerson's 
ethics  are  models  of  their  kind;  but  even  that 
good  man  and  genial  philosopher  partially  lost 
his  mental  faculties  before  his  death,  showing 
that  he  did  not  understand  the  science  of  Mind 
Healing,  as  elaborated  in  my  Science  and 
Health;  nor  did  he  pretend  to  do  so." 

Although  Berkeley  is  not  referred  to  in  the 
later  editions  of  this  book,  yet  it  is  easy  to  show 
to  how  great  an  extent  he  anticipated  Mrs. 
Eddy  in  the  promulgation  of  her  theories  re- 
garding mind  and  matter. 

Thus  Berkeley  teaches  that  our  sensations  are 
wholly  subjective,  and  that  we  are  in  error  if 
we  believe  that  we  have  a  sensation  of  external 
objects,  or  perceive  them.  That  which  we  have 
and  perceive  is  only  our  sensation.  The  so- 
called  objects  exist  only  in  our  notion,  and  have 
a  being  only  as  perceived.  It  is  not  possible, 
he  claims,  that  material  things  should  produce 
anything  so  wholly  distinct  from  themselves  as 
sensations  and  notions.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  a  material  external  world.  Mind  alone  exists 
as    thinking  being,    whose  nature  consists  in 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  15 

thinking  and  willing.  But  whence  then  arise 
all  our  sensations  which  are  not  the  products  of 
our  will?  They  come  from  God,  who  gives  us 
ideas.  Ideas  exist  in  God,  and  we  derive  them 
from  Him.  In  consequence  of  this  view,  says 
Berkeley,  we  do  not  deny  an  independent  real- 
ity of  things,  we  only  deny  that  they  can  exist 
elsewhere  than  in  an  understanding.  ^ 

Thus  while  Berkeley  denied  the  independent 
existence  of  matter,  considering  such  a  subjec- 
tive idealism  as  the  surest  way  to  oppose  mate- 
rialism and  atheism,  he  never  advanced  beyond 
the  philosophical  concept,  nor  reduced  his  the- 
ory to  an  absurdity  by  attempting  to  apply  it  to 
the  affairs  of  daily  life,  and  the  conclusions  of 
universal  experience. 

Mrs.  Eddy  assures  us  that  to  escape  from  sin, 
sickness  and  death,  it  is  only  necessary  to  be- 
lieve in  the  non=existence  of  matter. 

"Nothing"  she  tells  us,  'Hhat  man  can  say  or 
believe  regarding   matter   is   true,   except  that  l\ 
matter  is  unreal,  and  therefore  a  belief."  ^ 

Free   the  mind,  therefore,  of  a  belief  in  sin  "?C 
and  you  will  be  sinless.    ''  Eradicate  all  thoughts 
of   physiology,   drugs,  laws  of  health,  sickness 
and  pain;  know  that  God  is  the  only  panacea, 


16  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

divine  love  the  only  medicine,"  and  you  will  be 
well. 
Y  "A  system  of  healing  that  denies  the  existence 
/of  a  material  body  to  be  healed,  is  too  absurd  for 
^  discussion."^  A  system  that  in  one  breath 
recognizes  the  existence  of  physical  disease,  only 
to  deny  it  in  the  next.  According  to  this  theory, 
drugs  and  poisons  have  no  power  over  material 
bodies  for  good  or  ill.  Whatever  effects  they 
produce  are  due  to  a  mistaken  belief  in  their 
potency.  "Men  think  they  will  act  thus  and  so 
on  the  physical  system,  and  consequently  they 
do;  free  your  mind  from  this  belief,  and  their 
power  vanishes."  Christian  Science,  Mrs.  Eddy 
tells  us,  divests  material  drugs  of  their  imagin- 
ary power. 

"When  the  sick  recover  by  the  use  of  drugs, 
it  is  the  law  of  a  general  belief,  culminating  in 
individual  faith,  that  heals;  and  according  to 
this  faith  will  the  effect  be."' 

"The  not  uncommon  notion  that  drugs  pro- 
duce absolute,  inherent,  curative  virtues  of  their 
own  involves  an  error,"  says  Dr.  Marston,  a 
teacher  of  this  same  science.  "Arnica,  quinine, 
opium,  could  not  produce  the  effects  ascribed  to 
them  except  by  imputed  virtue.     Men  think  they 

?  *'The  Churchman,"  April  11,  1896.     ^  Page  48. 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE P  17 

will  act  thus  on  the  physical  system,  and  conse- 
quently they  do.  The  i)roperty  of  alcohol  is  to 
intoxicate;  but  if  the  common  thought  had  en- 
dowed it  with  a  nourishing  quality  like  milk,  it 
would  produce  a  similar  effect. 

"A  curious  question  arises  about  the  origin  of 
healing  virtues,  if  it  be  admitted  that  all  drugs 
were  originally  destitute  of  them. 

"  We  can  conceive  of  a  time  in  the  mental  his- 
tory of  the  race  when  no  therapeutic  value  was 
assigned  to  certain  drugs,  when  in  fact,  it  was 
not  known  that  they  possessed  any.  How  did  it 
come  to  pass  that  common  thought,  or  any 
thought,  endowed  them  with  healing  virtue  in 
the  first  place?  Simply  in  this  way.  Man  find- 
ing himself  unprotected,  and  liable  to  be  hurt 
by  the  elements  in  the  midst  of  which  he  lived, 
forgot  the  true  source  of  healing,  and  began  to 
seek  earnestly  for  material  remedies  for  diseases 
and  wounds.  The  desire  for  something  led  to 
experiments,  and  with  each  trial  there  was  asso- 
ciated the  hope  that  the  means  applied  would 
prove  efficacious.  Then  what  at  first  was  an 
earnest  hope  came  to  be  a  belief;  and  thus  by 
gradual  steps,  a  belief  in  the  whole  contents  of 
the  pharmacopoeia  was  established."^  Surely 
^Quoted  in  Buckley's  "Faith  Healing,  etc,"  p.  204. 


18  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

this  is  midsummer  madness.  It  is  true  as 
every  physician  knows,  that  the  effect  of  a 
medicine  may  be  assisted  or  hindered  by  imag- 
ination, and  that  sugar  pellets  and  vials  of  col- 
ored water  sometimes  appear  to  produce  the 
effects  of  the  remedies  they  simulate;  but  this 
new  science  teaches  us  that  if  it  were  commonly 
believed  that  strychnine  were  a  proper  remedy 
to  administer  to  infants  for  colic,  it  would  be  as 
harmless  as  an  infusion  of  catnip;  whereas  if 
catnip  were  conceived  to  be  a  deadly  poison  it 
would  i)roduce  effects  as  violent  as  those  which 
now  follow  the  administration  of  strychnine. 
Why  then,  we  naturally  ask,  should  the  admin- 
istration of  a  poison  prove  fatal  to  a  person  who 
takes  it  in  complete  ignorance  of  its  imputed 
character?  Who  takes,  let  us  say,  morphine  by 
mistake  for  quinine?  Why  under  those  cir- 
cumstances, should  not  the  effect  commonly 
attributed  to  quinine  be  produced? 

It  is  not  the  drug  that  has  inherent  potency, 
we  are  told,  but  the  belief.  Why  then  should 
not  the  effect  ujDon  the  physical  body  correspond 
to  the  belief  in  accordance  with  which  it  was 
taken,  rather  than  to  any  supposititious  quality 
inherent  in  the  drug  itself? 

Again,  why  should  a  dose  of  strychnine  kill 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  19 

an  unconscious  infant,  or  a  dog  that  swallows  it 
hidden  in  a  mouthful  of  meat?  Certainly 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other  has  any  belief  re- 
garding the  effect  of  strychnine  upon  the  mortal 
body,  nor  any  consciousness  that  it  has  been 
taken;  why  then  should  the  characteristic  effect 
of  the  drug  be  manifested,  and  why  should  death 
ensue?  These  questions  do  not  stagger  Mrs. 
Eddy;  she  has  considered  the  matter  and  this  is 
her  explanation. 

"If  a  dose  of  poison  is  swallowed  through 
mistake,  and  the  patient  dies,  even  though  phy- 
sician and  patient  are  expecting  favorable  re- 
sults, does  belief,  you  ask,  cause  this  death? 
Even  so,  and  as  directly  as  if  the  poison  had 
been  intentionally  taken.  In  such  cases  a  few 
persons  believe  the  potion  swallowed  by  the  pa- 
tient to  be  harmless;  but  the  vast  majority  of 
mankind,  though  they  know  nothing  of  this  i3ar- 
ticular  case  and  this  special  j)erson,  believe  the 
arsenic,  the  strychnine,  or  whatever  drug  be 
used,  to  be  poisonous,  for  it  has  been  set  down 
as  a  poison  by  mortal  mind.  The  consequence 
is  that  the  result  is  controlled  by  the  majority 
of  opinions  outside,  not  by  the  infinitesimal 
minority  of  opinions  in  the  sick  chamber.  Tlie 
remote  cause  or  belief,  is  pronounced  stronger 


20  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE f 

than  the  predisposing  and  exciting  cause,  be- 
cause of  its  priority,  and  the  connection  of  past 
mortal  thoughts  with  present."^  But  in  such  a 
case  as  our  author  assumes,  how  does  the  major- 
ity opinion  enter  into  the  matter  at  all?  The 
poison  is  taken  in  ignorance  by  all  concerned. 
If  it  were  consciously  taken  we  might  under- 
stand it,  but  how  does  a  majority  opinion  attach 
itself  to  a  drug  administered  in  full  confidence 
that  it  is  not  only  harmless,  but  salutary,  and 
render  it  deadly?  Or  why  should  this  remarka- 
ble majority  opinion  always  associate  i)articular 
effects  with  particular  drugs?  Why  should  the 
effect  of  strychnine  be  unvarying?  Why  should 
it  not  sometimes  resemble  that  of  morphine? 
Supposing  the  drug  to  be  affected  by  some 
chemical  deterioration  unknown  to  the  persons 
who  use  it,  why  should  its  effects  be  modified 
thereby  if  belief  alone  gives  it  potency? 
And  finally,  why  should  the  majority  opinion 
on  the  part  of  mortal  mind  kill  a  dog  that  has 
ignorantly  swallowed  poison?  The  explanation 
given  does  not  explain  anything,  it  only  throws 
dust  in  the  eyes  of  reason;  and  it  seems  hopeless 
to  argue  with  a  person  who  is  capable  of  advanc- 
ing a  theory  so  absurd  and  illogical. 
^Page  70. 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCES  21 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  unshrinking  in  the  application 
of  her  theory.  She  says,  "You  can  even  edu- 
cate a  healthy  horse  so  far  in  physiology  that 
he  will  take  cold  without  his  blanket;  whereas 
the  wild  animal,  left  to  his  instincts  sniffs  the 
wind  with  delight.  The  epizootic  is  a  humanly 
evolved  ailment  which  a  wild  horse  might  never 
have."^  So,  I  may  add,  might  a  domesticated 
horse  never  have  it.  It  seems  almost  unneces- 
sary to  point  to  the  obvious  fact  that  the  animal 
accustomed  to  his  stable  and  blanket,  is  less  able 
to  resist  cold  than  one  that  has  been  hardened 
by  exposure.  If  the  assumed  theory  were  cor- 
rect, then  wild  animals  which  have  never  been 
subjected  to  the  domination  of  ''erring,  mortal, 
misnamed  mind  "  would  never  suffer  from  phys- 
ical ailments,  nor  from  the  effects  of  heat  and 
cold,  unless  indeed,  this  destructive  majority 
opinion  should  contrive  in  some  way  to  get  at 
them,  but  to  anyone  who  has  any  knowledge  of 
the  facts  in  the  case,  this  example  seems  to  be 
of  the  nature  of  a  redudio  ad  ahsiirdum. 

The  subject  of  mechanical  injuries  to  the 
body  is  one  that  strains  to  the  utmost  the  theory 
we  are  considering,  and  it  is  a  subject  which 
our  author  appears  to    avoid;    yet    she    says, 

>p.  72. 


?2  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCES 

"  Have  no  fears  that  matter  can  ache,  swell,  and 
be  inflamed,  from  a  law  of  any  kind,  when  it  is 
self-evident  that  matter  can  have  no  pain  or  in- 
flammation. Your  body  would  suffer  no  more 
from  tension  or  wounds,  than  the  trunk  of  a 
tree  you  gash,  or  the  electric  wire  which  you 
stretch,  were  it  not  for  mortal  mind."  ^ 

"When  an  accident  happens  you  think,  or  ex- 
claim, 'I  am  hurt,'  your  thought  is  more  power- 
ful than  your  words,  more  powerful  than  the  ac- 
cident itself  to  make  the  injury  real.  Now  re- 
verse the  process.  Declare  you  are  not  hurt, 
and  understand  the  reason  why;  and  you  v/ill 
find  the  ensuing  good  results  to  be  in  exact  pro- 
portion to  your  disbelief  in  physics,  and  your 
fidelity  to  God."^  "Man  is  indestructible  and 
eternal.  Some  time  it  will  be  learned  that  mind 
constructs  the  body,  and  with  its  own  materials. 
Hence  no  breakage  or  dislocation  can  really  oc- 
cur. You  say  that  accidents,  injuries,  and  dis- 
ease kill  man;  but  this  is  not  true.  The  life  of 
man  is  Mind.  The  material  body  manifests 
only  what  mortal  mind  admits,  whether  it  be  a 
broken  bone,  disease,  or  sin."^ 

A  broken  bone  indeed,  ought  to  the  Christian 
Scientist  to  be  a  very  slight  inconvenience,  since 

»p.  392.     2  p.  396.     3p,  400. 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCI  EN  CEP  23 

"bones  have  only  the  substantiality  of  thought 
which  formed  them.  They  are  only  an  appear- 
ance, a  subjective  state  of  mortal  mind.  The 
so=called  substance  of  bone  is  formed  first  by 
the  parent's  mind,  through  self^division.  Soon 
the  child  becomes  a  separate,  individualized 
thought,  another  mortal  mind,  which  speedily 
takes  possession  of  itself."^  Nevertheless,  we 
are  advised  that  "  until  the  advancing  age  admits 
the  efficacy  and  supremacy  of  mind,  it  is  better 
to  leave  the  adjustment  of  broken  bones  and 
dislocations  to  the  fingers  of  a  surgeon,  while 
you  confine  yourself  to  mental  reconstruction, 
and  the  prevention  of  inflammation  or  protracted 
confinement.  Christian  Science  is  always  the  J 
most  skillful  surgeon,  but  surgery  is  the  branch  | 
of  its  healing  which  will  be  last  demonstrated."  f  \ 
This,  I  think,  is  very  sensible  advice. 

We  are  told  that  "food  neither  strengthens 
nor  weakens  the  body,"  and  that  "heat  and  cold 
are  products  of  mind."^  Yet  neither  our  author 
nor  her  disciples,  so  far  as  I  have  heard,  have 
advanced  sufficiently  to  dispense  with  food,  fire 
and  clothing. 

In  this  connection  I  have  said  enough  per- 
haps, of  this  book  which  asserts  that  it  is  "not 

>p.  421.       2  p.  400.     3  p.  373. 


24  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE f 

the  work  of  a  human  pen,"  but  it  is  impossible 
without  protest  to  pass  by  such  claims  of  infal- 
libility, or  to  ignore  such  monumental  egotism 
as  appears  in  the  following  passage. 

"The  perusal  of  the  author's  publications 
heals  sickness  constantly.  If  patients  some- 
times seem  the  worse  for  reading  this  book,  the 
change  may  either  arise  from  the  alarm  of  the 
physician,  or  may  mark  the  crisis  of  the  disease. 
Perseverance  in  its  perusal  has  generally  healed 
them  completely."^  And  again,  "A  Christian 
Scientist  requires  my  work  on  Science  and 
Health  for  his  text^book,  and  so  do  all  his 
students  and  patients,"  (At  three  dollars  a 
copy.)  "Why  ?  First:  Because  it  is  the  voice 
of  truth  to  this  age,  and  contains  the  whole  of 
Christian  Science,  or  the  Science  of  healing 
through  Mind.  Second:  Because  it  was  the 
first  published  book  containing  a  statement  of 
Christian  Science,  gave  the  first  rules  for  dem- 
onstrating this  Science,  and  registered  this  re- 
vealed truth,  uncontaminated  with  human  hy- 
potheses. Other  works,  which  have  borrowed 
from  this  book  without  giving  it  credit,  have 
adulterated  the  Science.  Third:  Because  this 
work  has  done  more  for  teacher  and  student, 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCES  25 

for  healer  and  iDatient,  than  has  been  accom- 
plished by  other  works. "  ^ 

It  is  evident  that  Mrs.  Eddy  does  not  agree-  / 
with  the  wise  man  who  said,  "  Let  another  man^ 
praise  thee,  and  not  thine  own  mouth."  /  V 

Considering  the  benefits  which  this  book  is 
said  to  confer  upon  humanity,  one  would  think 
that  it  might  be  sold  at  a  less  price  than  that 
which  in  the  case  of  any  other  book  of  equal 
character  as  to  its  size  and  mechanical  execu- 
tion, would  be  considered  exorbitant,  especially 
so,  since  it  is  published  in  large  editions  and 
by  E.  J.  Foster  Eddy,  M.  D.  It  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  the  author  appends  this  note 
to  her  preface:  "The  author  takes  no  patients, 
and  declines  medical  consultation." 

In  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College, 
of  which  she  is  the  President,  the  charge,  I  am 
told,  for  the  course  of  twelve  primary  lectures 
is,  or  was,  $300.  While  for  the  six  Normal  ( 
Class  lectures  students  must  pay  $200.  Evi- 
dently Mrs.  Eddy  does  not  apply  to  money  her 
views  of  matter,  nor  consider  it  a  delusion  of: 
mortal  mind.  |      \ 

ip.  453.  j/ 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE. 

It  is  not  easy  to  write  of  the  theology  of  Chris- 
tian Science,  since  it  is  expressed  in  language 
so  vague  and  unscientific  that  it  is  difficult  to 
say  with  certainty  what  is  the  exact  nature  of 
its  conclusions. 

Theology  is  the  science  which  treats  of  the 
nature  and  attributes  of  God,  and  His  relation 
to  His  creatures;  and  it  is  most  important  that 
its  conclusions  be  expressed  in  language  so  clear 
and  definite  that  there  shall  be  no  possibility 
for  the  introduction  of  errors  under  the  guise  of 
truth.  Without  doubt  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  fol- 
lowers are  sincere  in  their  devotion  to  the  prin- 
ciples they  teach,  and  believe  that  they  express 
the  mind  of  God,  and  the  spirit  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, but  the  same  eccentricities  and  intellectual 
vagaries  which  characterize  their  metaphysical 
theories  distort  their  views  of  Christian  theol- 
ogy. They  twist  and  pervert  the  Scriptures  to 
make  them  agree  with  their  opinions,  and  empty 

26 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  27 

them  of  the  plain  and  evident  meanings  which 
men  in  every  age  have  found  in  them. 

The  result  is  curious  and  perplexing  to  the 
last  degree. 

Let  us  see  how  Christian  Science  agrees  with 
the  Catholic  faith  as  it  is  expressed  in  the  Apos- 
tle's and  the  Nicene  creeds. 

First  with  regard  to  the  personality  of  God. 
Is  He  a  person,  the  Creator  of  all  things  visible 
and    invisible,    self-conscious     and    self-deter- 
mined ?     Christian  Science  says :  "  God  is  divine  , 
Principle,    supreme  incorporeal  Being,   Mind,  A 
Spirit,    Soul,   Life,  Truth,  Love."'      "God   is 
all=inclusive,  and  is  reflected  by  everything  real 
and  eternal.     He  fills  all  space,  and  it  is  impos- 
sible to  conceive  of  such  omnipresence  and  indi- 
viduality except  as  Mind."  ^     "  If  the  term  per- 
sonaliiu  as  ax3plied  to  God,  means  infinite  per- 
sonality, then  God  is  personal  Being — in  this 
sense,  but  not  in  the  lower  sense."  ^     It  is  "  as 
Principle,  not  person,  that  He  saves  man,  instead  \ 
of  pardons  him."  *     These  and  many  similar  pas- 
sages would  seem  to  deny  that  God  is  a  person  inV 
any  true  sense  of  the  word,  and  yet  in  a  letter  to 
the  Reverend  H.  M.  Tenney  quoted  in  his  admi- 
rable little  book  on  Christian  Science,  Mrs.  Eddy 

1  Page  461.    2  Page  227.    ^  Page  10.    *  Index. 


2a  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

says,  "It  is  the  material  or  corporeal  personality 
of  God  that  I  deny.  God  is  an  individual  Be- 
ing, self-conscious  and  self-determined."  ^  So 
that  on  this  point  we  can  only  say  that  the  lan- 
guage used  by  Christian  Scientists  is  vague  and 
/  misleading,  and  calculated  to  convey  the  im- 
pression that  God  is  a  cold  and  distant  abstrac- 
tion, not  a  loving  Father;  a  X3rinciple  and  not  a 
/  person.  Not  the  God  who  delights  to  hear  and 
I  answer  prayer;  indeed,  we  are  told  that  "Prayer 
to  a  personal  God  is  a  hindrance."  ^ 

And  so  I  submit  that  the  whole  drift  of  the 
teaching  in  "  Science  and  Health"  on  this  jooint 
is  Pantheistic,  and  that  it  is  calculated  to  ob- 
scure belief  in  the  personality  and  fatherhood 
of  God. 

The  Nicene  creed  states  that  God  is  the 
"  Maker  of  all  things  visible  and  invisible." 
And  the  voice  of  inspiration  declares  that  "  In 
the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the 
earth,"  and  that  "All  things  were  made  by  Him; 
and  without  Him  was  not  anything  made  that 
was  made." 

This  is  contradicted  by  our  author  who  de- 
.,  clares  that  "  God  never  created  matter  for  there 
'    18  nothing  in  spirit  out  of  which  matter  could 

'Tenney  "  Christian  Science,"  page  31.    ^  index. 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCES  29 

be  made,"  ^  and  "  nothing  we  can  say  or  believe 
regarding  matter  is  true,  except  that  matter  is 
unreal,  and  is  therefore  a  belief,  which  has  its 
beginning  and  ending."  ^ 

Now,  if  God  did  not  make  "  the  heaven  and 
earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,"  how  did 
they  come  into  being?  for  not  even  Mrs.  Eddy 
denies  their  existence.  "  Science,"  she  tells  us, 
"reveals  that  what  is  termed  matter,  is  but  a 
manifestation  of  mortal  mind."  ''  In  other 
words,"  to  quote  Mr.  Tenney  again,  "  this  rebel 
thought,  which  started  oiBP  from  the  perfect  man 
without  his  consent,  and  set  up  for  itself,  is  the 
author  of  this  whole  material  universe  as  it  ap- 
pears to  man.  When  the  astronomer  points  his 
telescope  to  the  heavens  and  discovers  a  comet 
or  an  asteroid,  he  finds  simply  an  inverted  idea 
reflected  by  inverted  thought.  When  the  chem- 
ist discovers  a  new  reaction,  he  simply  hits 
upon  an  inverted  thought,  which  though  utterly 
unknown  to  the  scientific  world,  must  have  em- 
anated from  some  mortal  mind.  In  a  word,  the 
whole  universe,  from  the  glorious  orbs  in  the 
heavens,  to  the  minutest  object  in  the  micro- 
scopic world,  is  but  the  reflection  of  a  mind 
which  is  as  unreal  as  a  shadow  of  a  shadow. 

1  Page  230.     ^pag©  173. 


80  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCES 

Hamlet  in  his  madness,  was  an  advanced  Chris- 
tian Scientist. 

"  This  goodly  frame,  the  earth,  seems  to  me  a 
sterile  promontory;  this  most  excellent  canopy, 
the  air,  look  you — this  brave  o'erhanging  firma- 
ment— this  majestical  roof  fretted  with  golden 
fire,  why,  it  ajipears  no  other  thing  to  me,  than 
a  foul  and  pestilent  congregation  of  vapors." 

There  is  some  coherency  in  the  idealism  of 
Bishop  Berkeley;  he  denies  indeed  the  reality 
of  the  external  universe,  but  affirms  that  what 
seems  to  be  the  material  world  consists  of  ideas 
which  God  is  constantly  projecting  into  our 
minds.  But  that  thought  without  a  thinker, 
and  thought  wrong  side  up  at  that,  should  be 
able  to  create  out  of  itself  that  which  appears  to 
be  the  splendid  universe  of  matter,  is  as  wild  an 
assumption  as  any  "  mortal  mind  "  has  yet  pro- 
duced. ^ 

Pantheism  is  the  doctrine  which  asserts  that 
God  is  the  only  substance,  of  which  the  mate- 
rial universe  and  man  are  only  manifestations. 
It  teaches  that  God  and  the  universe  are  identi- 
cal, and  is  accompanied  with  a  denial  of  God's 
personality.  Mrs.  Eddy,  as  we  have  seen,  de- 
nies a  material  creation,  and  at  least  by  infer- 

*  Tenney,  page  36. 


//  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  31 

ence,  denies  a  spiritual  creation  as  well,  since 
she  holds  that  all  that  really  is,  is  a  reflection  of 
the  Divine  Mind,  and  in  consequence  has  always 
existed,  and  will  forever  exist.  Since  God  is  all, 
there  can  be  no  increase  or  diminution  in  the 
sum  of  being. 

She  says,  "  In  one  sense  God  is  identical  with 
nature;  but  this  nature  is  spiritual,  and  not  ex- 
pressed in  matter."^  It  is  an  erroneous  postu- 
late of  belief,  she  adds,  to  say  "  that  substance, 
life,  and  intelligence  are  something  apart  from 
God."  It  follows  then,  that  since  all  that  really 
is,  is  God;  and  "  God  without  the  image  and 
likeness  of  Himself,  would  be  a  nonentity";^ 
and  "  man  divorced  from  spirit  would  be  a  non- 
entity,— for  man  is  co^existent  with  God";^  that 
God  and  man  and  nature  are  one  and  identical. 
If  this  is  not  Pantheism,  it  is  perilously  near 
it. 

Mrs.  Eddy  condemns  Pantheism,  but  defines 
it  as  "  a  belief  in  the  intelligence  of  matter."  * 
She  classes  it  with  Agnosticism,  Theosophy, 
Spiritualism,  and  Millenarianism,  as  opposed  to 
Christian  Science. 

If  Pantheism  consists,  as  she  seems  to  think, 
in  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  matter,  or  in  its 

1  Page  13.     2  Page  199.     3  Page  473.     *  Page  23. 


32  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

intelligence,  then  nothing  can  be  further  from 
her  mind;  but  if  Pantheism  be  what  I  have  de- 
fined it,  and  what  all  men  in  the  past  have 
thought  it  to  be,  then  her  declaration  that 
"  Nothing  possesses  reality  or  existence,  except 
Mind,  God,"  is  distinctly  Pantheistic. 

In  justice  to  the  founder  of  Christian  Science 
however,  I  must  say  that  in  my  opinion  what 
she  desires  to  teach  is  not  strictly  speaking. 
Pantheism,  but  the  doctrine  of  the  immanence 
of  God,  which  is  a  very  different  thing,  and  when 
carefully  defined  a  wholesome  and  necessary 
doctrine  to  be  insisted  upon  in  these  days,  as  a 
corrective  to  the  materialism  of  the  age.  By  the 
immanence  of  God,  we  mean  that  He  is  every- 
where present  in  nature,  and  that  from  Him  all 
things  have  their  being,  and  that  He  cannot  del- 
egate His  power  to  demigods  called  "second 
causes."  It  teaches  "  That  the  infinite  and 
eternal  power  that  is  manifested  in  every  pulsa- 
tion of  the  universe,  is  none  other  than  the  liv- 
ing God."  But  we  also  mean  that  though  noth- 
ing can  exist  without  Him,  yet  that  nothing  is 
what  he  is;  and  it  is  at  this  iDoint,  and  in  the 
denial  of  the  facts  of  material  creation,  that 
Christian  Science  parts  company  with  the  Bible 
and  the  theology  of  the  Christian  Church. 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  83 

The  language  of  Christian  Science  with  refer- 
ence to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  always  reverent 
and  guarded.  His  virgind3irth  is  distinctly  as- 
serted, and  He  is  declared  to  he  the  great  Mas- 
ter and  exi^ounder  of  the  Science  of  Metajohy- 
sical  Healing.  As  might  be  anticipated  how- 
ever, the  strange  ideas  of  divinity  which  are  in- 
separable from  this  system  give  to  our  author's 
teaching  regarding  the  person  and  work  of  our 
Lord,  a  novelty  and  strangeness  which  cannot 
be  reconciled  v/ith  the  historic  conception  of  the 
Incarnation  and  the  Atonement.  In  the  first;;  / 
place,  a  distinction  is  made  between  Jesus  the'\/ 
Son  of  Mary,  and  the  Christ;  by  which  it  is.A^ 
made  to  aj^pear  that  "the  invisible  Christ  was 
incorj^oreal,  whereas  Jesus  was  a  corporeal  or 
bodily  existence."^  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the 
most  scientific  man  that  ever  trod  the  globe. 
He  j)lunged  beneath  the  material  surface  of 
things,  and  found  their  si^iritual  cause,"  ^  and 
"The  Christ  is  the  divinity  of  the  man  Jesus."' 

Jesus  was  "a  godlike  and  glorified  man"* 
and  "  the  Christ  dwelt  forever  in  the  bosom  of 
the  principle  of  the  man  Jesus."  ^ 

While  "He  expressed  the  highest  type  in  that 

1  Page  229.     2  Page  209.     ^  Page  331.     *  Page  359. 
^  Page  334. 


34  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

age  which  a  fleshly  form  could  express"^  and 
was  "  the  highest  human  concept  of  the  perfect 
man"  ^  He  was,  after  all  only  "a  human  corpo- 
real concept."' 

"This  dual  personality,  of  the  seen  and  the 
unseen,  the  spiritual  and  the  material,  {\\e.  Christ 
and  Jesus,  continued  until  the  Master's  ascen- 
sion, when  the  human,  the  corporeal  concept, 
or  Jesus,  disappeared,  while  His  invisible  self, 
or  Christ,  continued  to  exist  in  the  eternal  order 
of  Divine  Science,  taking  away  the  sins  of  the 
world,  as  the  Christ  had  always  done,  even  be- 
fore the  human  Jesus  was  incarnate  to  mortal 
eyes."* 

We  have  here  an  explicit  denial  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  which  asserts  that  "The 
Son,  which  is  the  Word  of  the  Father,  begotten 
from  everlasting  of  the  Father,  and  of  one  sub- 
stance with  the  Father,  took  man's  nature  in 
the  womb  of  the  blessed  Virgin,  of  her  substance: 
so  that  two  whole  and  perfect  natures,  that  is  to 
say,  the  Godhead  and  Manhood,  were  joined 
together  in  one  person,  never  to  be  divided, 
whereof  is  one  Christ,  very  God,  and  very  man." 

The  Jesus  of  Christian  Science  was  a  man, 
the  most  spiritual  that  had  lived  up  to  that  time, 

'  Page  228.     »  Page  478.     ^  Page  229.     *  p.  229. 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  35 

/but  notwithstanding  His  virgin=birth,  only  a 
man.  The  Christ  is  the  expressed  image  of 
"God's  spiritual,  eternal  idea"  but  indistin- 
guishable from  the  Father. 

The  Holy  Ghost  is  ''Divine  Science;  the  de-v 
velopments  of  eternal  Life,  Truth,  and  Love."\. 

Christian  Science  teaches  that  Jesus  never  tru-  \  , 
ly  ascended  into  heaven,  but  that  He  disappeared,  t 
while  His  invisible  self,  or  Christ,  continued  to/  ^ 
exist  in  the  eternal  order  of  Divine  Science. 

Our  Lord  had  no  true  human  body,  but  "toV/ 
accommodate  Himself  to  immature  ideas  of  spir-  V 
itual  power,  Jesus  called  the  body  which  he 
raised  from  the  grave,  'flesh  and  bones. "^  He 
wore  "  in  part  a  human  form  (that  is,  as  it  seemed 
to  mortal  view)  being  conceived  by  a  mortal 
mother."^ 

His  human  body  therefore,  was  only  an  ap- 
pearance, and  He  could  not  truly  have  suffered 
upon  the  cross,  unless  He  had  been  in  the  con- 
dition of  "  mortal  mind";  this  indeed  seems  to  be 
asserted  in  the  j)assage  in  "  Science  and  Health ," 
which  says,  "Jesus  bore  our  sins  in  His  body. 
He  knew  the  mortal  error  which  constitutes  the 
material  body,  and  could  destroy  that  error;  but 
at  the  time  when  Jesus  felt  our  infirmities,  He 

,  211. 


36  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

had  not  conquered  all  the  beliefs  of  the  flesh, 
or  His  sense  of  material  life,  nor  had  He  risen 
to  His  final  demonstration  of  spiritual  power."  ^ 
That  is  to  say,  He  did  not  grasp  and  compre- 
hend the  Science  of  Life  as,  for  instance,  the  re- 
discoverer  and  great  modern  teacher  of  the  sys- 
tem does. 

If  "  suffering  is  an  error  of  sinful  sense,"  then 
our  Lord  if  He  suffered,  must  have  been  in  a 
state  of  "sinful  sense";  or  else  His  "awful 
agony  "  of  which  Mrs.  Eddy  speaks  was  an  illu- 
sion. 

We  are  told  that  "the  burden  of  that  hour 
was  terrible  beyond  human  conception."  What 
could  that  burden  have  been,  if  "  He  knew  the 
mortal  error  which  constitutes  the  material 
body,  and  could  destroy  that  error"  ? 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  what  conception 
of  our  Lord's  nature  Mrs.  Eddy  can  have  in  the 
face  of  all  these  perplexing  and  contradictory 
statement^.  It  cannot  be  a  clear  and  consistent 
view;  I  do  not  see  how  it  can  be  such  as  to  in- 
spire faith  and  love.  It  certainly  is  far  removed 
from  all  that  the  Church  has  taught  as  truth, 
for  she  revives  the  condemned  falsehoods  of  the 
Arians,  the  Nestorians,  the  Sabellians  and  the 

3  Page  358. 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  37 

Docetse,    and   fuses   them    together    into    one 
monstrous  and  inconsistent  heresy. 

After  a  careful  examination  of  the  writings  of 
so-called  Christian  Science  with  reference  to  its 
teaching  concerning  the  nature  and  person  of 
our  Savior  Christ,  I  can  only  say,  "  They  have 
taken  away  my  Lord,  and  I  know  not  where 
they  have  laid  Him." 

The  Atonement  has  no  place  in  the  theology 
of  Christian  Science,  since  it  does  not  recogniz^ 
the  existence  of  sin,  nor  the  need  of  reconcilial, 
tion  with  God.  This  is  a  necessary  consequence ' 
of  the  denial  of  human  personality,  and  the 
teaching  that  man  is  the  reflection  of  God,  co- 
existent with  Him  and  immortal.'  Mrs.  Eddy 
affirms  that  "the  only  reality  of  sin,  sickness, 
or  death  is  the  awful  fact  that  unrealities  seem 
real  to  human  belief,  until  God  strips  off  their 
disguise."  ^ 

"Man  is  spiritual  and  perfect;  he  is  incapable 
of  sin,  sickness,  and  death,  inasmuch  as  he 
derives  his  essence  from  God,  and  possesses  not 
a  single  original,  or  underived  power.  Hence 
the  real  man  cannot  depart  from  holiness.  Nor 
can  God,  by  whom  man  was  evolved,  engender 
the  capacity  or  freedom  to  sin."  ^     "  Evil  is  an 

'  Page  473.     ^  page  468.     ^  Pago  471. 


88  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE f 

illusion,  and  error,  and  has  no  real  basis.  It  is 
a  false  belief."  ^  "  If  soul  could  sin,  or  be  lost 
through  sin,  then  Being  and  Immortality  would 
be  lost,  with  all  the  faculties  of  Mind;  but  Being 
cannot  be  lost  while  God  exists."^ 

"  Sin  exists  only  so  long  as  the  material  illu- 
sion remains:  it  is  the  sense  of  sin,  and  not  the 
sinful  soul,  which  must  be  lost."  ^ 

As  sin  is  an  illusion,  so  "  sickness  is  no  more 
the  reality  of  being  than  sin  is,"  and  "death  is 
a  mortal  dream,"  so  "  sin,  sickness  and  ^deatir 
should  cease  through  Christian  Science."  How 
it  comes  to  pass  that  man,  being  the  image  of 
God,  and  incapable  of  sin,  comes  into  the  con- 
dition which  is  characterized  as  "  mortal  mind," 
and  comes  to  entertain  the  illusions  of  sin  and 
sickness,  our  author  does  not  tell  us.  Sin,  we 
are  assured,  is  not  a  deliberate  choice  of  evil, 
not  a  transgression  of  God's  laws,  consequent 
upon  man's  freedom  of  will,  but  it  is  simply  the 
result  of  inverted  thinking;  a  dream,  and  a 
phantom,  which  has  no  real  existence. 

This  is  a  conclusion  as  startling  and  dangerous 
as  it  is  unscriptural,  and  one  calculated  to  subvert 
the  very  foundations  of  morality.      It  is  rankest 

»  Page  476.     ^  Page  111.     s  page  207. 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE f  39 

Antinomianism.  The  guilt  of  sin  is  wholly 
ignored,  the  idea  is  not  entertained  by  the  Chris- 
tian Scientist,  who  has  therefore,  no  need  of  a  / 
Savior;  and  the  dreadful  consequences  of  sin 
upon  the  sinner  are  lightly  and  jauntily  passed  j 
over.  We  are  told  indeed,  that  "  while  the  spell 
of  belief  remains  unbroken,  sin,  sickness,  and 
death  will  seem  real,  (even  as  the  experiences  of 
the  sleeping  dreams  seem  real)  until  the  Science 
of  man's  unbroken  harmony  breaks  the  illusion 
with  its  own  unbroken  reality."  ^  But  this  is  a 
feeble  safeguard,  and  a  poor  substitute  for  the 
Scriptural  teaching  of  the  exceeding  sinfulness 
of  sin,  and  such  laxity  of  doctrine  may  readily 
be  taken  by  the  evil  minded  as  an  excuse  for 
rushing  into  all  sorts  of  depravity,  since  they  are 
assured  that  God  has  no  knowledge  of  sin,  and 
does  not  punish  the  sinner,  and  sin  moreover,  is 
but  a  phantom,  and  a  dream  within  a  dream, 
which  cannot  affect  the  soul,  nor  cause  it  to 
lose  its  hold  upon  eternal  life. 

It  is  hard  to  understand  how  any  person  of 
intelligence,  who  believes  the  Bible  to  be  the 
Word  of  God,  and  has  been  instructed  in  the 
Christian  faith,  can  accept  as  truth  a   system 

1  Page  490. 


iO  WHAT  IS  CHBISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

which  is  so  manifestly  at  variance  with  Divine 
Revelation,  and  the  teachings  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

Instead  of  the  old  faith  in  God  our  Father, 
and  our  Savior  Jesus  Christ,  we  are  asked  to 
receive  a  new  religion,  which  has  for  its  central 
doctrine  the  theory  of  the  non-existence  of  the 
material  universe;  a  doctrine  so  manifestly 
absurd,  that  robust  common  sense  revolts  at  it. 

A  religion  which  has  no  clear  conception  of 
a  personal  God  and  an  individual  immortality, 
which  knows  nothing  of  sin,  and  has  no  need  of 
a  savior;  a  religion  which  has  cut  itself  off  from 
\  historic  Christianity,  and  is  without  a  creed, 
Without  sacraments,  without  prayer,  without 
public  worshij).  A  system  which  conceives  of 
light  without  darkness,  sunshine  without  sha- 
dow, good  without  evil. 

We  cannot  account  for  the  influence  it  exerts 
over  the  minds  of  so  many  unless  we  hold  that 
it  is  one  of  the  manifestations  of  that  strong 
delusion  which  according  to  the  prophecy  re- 
corded by  St.  Paul,  God  shall  send  upon  the 
earth  in  the  latter  times,  when  the  Man  of  Sin 
shall  be  revealed  with  signs  and  lying  wonders. 

The  disciple  of  Christian  Science  is  taught 
that  when  he  abandons  the  false  belief  in  mat- 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE f  41 

ter,  he  emerges  from  the  condition  of  "  mortal 
mind,"  and  is  thenceforth  sinless.  He  does 
not  need  forgiveness  of  his  past  sins,  since  God 
takes  no  note  of  sin,  and  is  of  purer  eyes  than  to 
behold  iniquity.  His  sin  falls  from  him  with 
his  false  belief  in  matter,  and  he  enters  upon  a 
life  of  perfection,  and  oneness  with  God. 

For  such  an  one  there  is  no  longer  need  of 
prayer,  since  "  petitions  only  bring  mortals  the 
results  of  their  own  belief,"  and  "  audible  prayer    \ 
cannot  change  the  unalterable  truth,  or  give  us  , 
an  understanding  of  it."  * 

The  Eucharist  to  him  becomes  a  "  dead  rite ," 
for  since  "Christ,    Truth,   has   come   to   us  in 
demonstration,  no  commemoration  is  necessary 
for  He  is  Immanuel,  or  God  with  us;   and   if   a 
friend  be  with  us,  why   need   we   memorials  of    ^ 
that     friend?"''     Baptism    is    wholly   ignored.  j\ 
The   Scriptures  are   emptied   of   their   evideni/f'/  ' 
meaning,  and  twisted  into    strange    and   gro- 
tesque forms.     If  there  is  any  passage  that  can-/  \ 
not  be  bent  to  suit  her  fancy,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  a     \ 
short  and  easy  way  out  of  the  difficulty,  by  im- 
puting to  the  translator  "  a  false  sense  of  belief."^ 

As  an  example  of  her  exegesis,  let  me  quote 
the  following. 

1  Page  317.     ^p.  339..     3p,  537, 


42  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

"  The  word  Adam  is  from  the  Hebrew  ada- 
mah,  signifying  the  red  color  of  the  ground, 
dust,  nothingness.  Divide  the  name  Adam  into 
two  syllables,  and  it  reads,  a  dam,  or  obstruc- 
tion. This  suggests  the  thought  of  something 
fluid,  of  mortal  mind  in  solution,  of  the  dark- 
ness which  seemed  to  appear  when  "  darkness 
was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep,"  and  matter 
stood  as  opposed  to  Spirit,  as  that  which  is  ac- 
cursed."^    Is  it  not  silly? 

In  short,  this  system  is  not  Christian,  if 
Christianity  be  that  faith  which  is  expressed  in 
the  Nicene  Creed:  and  it  is  not  Science,  unless 
we  agree  to  ignore  the  evident  facts  of  con- 
sciousness, the  evidence  of  common  sense,  and 
the  general  consent  of  all  mankind  from  the 
beginning  as  to  the  nature  of  self-evident  truth. 

What  then,  can  we  say  more  of  it?  What  is 
the  kernel  of  truth  that  gives  it  vitality? 

In  the  first  place  it  is  an  emphatic  protest 
against  the  gross  materialism  of  the  age  in 
which  we  live,  when  men  need  to  be  reminded, 
as  never  before,  that  "The  things  which  are 
seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things  which  are  not 
seen  are  eternal."     If  Christian  Science  help  to 

ip.  233. 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  43 

detach  iis  from  our  dependence  upon  the  world 
of  sense,  and  to  fix  our  minds  upon  the  eternal 
verities  of  God,  it  will  not  have  been  in  vain. 

It  is  likewise  a  protest  against  that  pride  of 
intellect  which  boasts  itself  against  God,  and 
issues  into  so-called  Agnosticism;  for  whatever 
be  its  faults  as  a  metaphysical  and  a  theological 
system,  Christian  Science  denies  any  such 
seiDaration  of  man  from  his  Maker,  as  that  he 
cannot  know  Him.  And  instead  of  the  dreary 
hopelessness  of  nescience,  it  afiirms  "that  the 
energy  and  act  of  the  spiritual  man  consists  in 
knowing  that  he  is  receptive  of  the  constant 
influx  of  Divine  Intelligence,"  and  this  certain- 
ly is  a  doctrine  of  eternal  hope. 

Christian  Science,  moreover  is  a  protest 
against  the  paganism  of  an  age  which  tries  to 
live  without  God;  for  it  teaches  constantly  that 
God  is  our  life,  and  that  in  Him  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being. 

More  than  all,  this  system  furnishes  men  and 
women  with  an  incentive  to  do  what  the  Chris- 
tian religion  rightly  understood,  always  ena- 
bles them  to  do;  namely  to  live  with  a  quiet i 
mind,  without  worry,  and  without  anxiety.  And 
here,  I  believe  is  the  real  secret  of  its  power. 


44  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE f 

If  only  they  v/ere  faithful,  and  believed  the 
promises  of  their  Master  Jesus  Christ,  and  lived 
according  to  His  precepts;  if  only  they  would 
take  the  Gospel  for  their  rule  of  life,  all  Chris- 
tians would  cast  out  of  their  hearts  the  evil  spir- 
its of  fear  and  anger,  and  live  calm  and  cheer- 
ful, and  rational  lives.  If  only  we  had  faith  in 
God,  and  belief  in  His  power  and  His  willing- 
ness to  help  us,  we  should  live  without  that 
anxiety  and  fretful  worry,  which  is  the  great 
curse  and  despoiler  of  human  life. 

"Be  not  anxious  for  the  morrow,"  said  our 
Lord,  "  for  the  morrow  will  be  anxious  for  itself." 
We  are  disquieted  and  anxious  because  we  have 
not  faith;  our  lives  are  soured  and  spoiled,  we 
become  peevish  and  fretful;  we  are  hypochon- 
driacs and  invalids,  when  God  would  have  us 
r strong  and  cheerful  and  well. 
/  The  secret  of  godliness  is  the  secret  of  health 
'  and  contentment  as  well;  and  Christian  Science, 
although  it  ignores  the  great  fact  that  God  em- 
ploys the  discipline  of  suflPering,  and  the  alchemy 
of  sorrow  to  lead  men  to  Him  and  to  train  and 
develop  character;  although  it  forgets  "that 
whom  the  Lord  loveth  He  chasteneth,  and 
scourgeth  every  son  whom  He  receiveth,"  yet  it 
has  conferred  a  benefit  upon  humanity  by  point- 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  45 

ing  to  the  fact  that  cheerfuhiess  and  content- 
ment are  among  the  primary  and  essential 
Christian  virtues,  and  that  sickness  and  sin  are 
very  closely  related  the  one  to  the  other. 


CHAPTER  I  V. 

THE  THERAPEUTICS  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE. 

This  brings  us  to  the  third  division  of  our 
subject,  namely,  the  therapeutics  of  Christian 
Science, 

The  question  at  once  arises,  does  this  system 
truly  alleviate  pain  and  cure  disease  ?  And  with- 
out hesitation  we  must  answer,  it  frequently 
does.  I  hold  that  this  is  a  clearly  demonstrated 
fact,  the  proofs  of  which  are  abundant  and  easi- 
ly obtained. 

By  this  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  it  is  a  pan- 
acea for  all  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to,  or  that  it 
is  all  that  its  adherents  claim  for  it,  but  I  do 
assert  that  many  remarkable  cures  are  effected 
by  it,  and  that  in  the  treatment  of  the  sick  its 
influence  is  generally  beneficent. 

If  this  be  so,  one  naturally  asks,  does  it  not 
establish  the  truth  of  Christian  Science,  and 
constitute  the  best  possible  Justification  of  the 
metaphysical  and  theological  systems  we  have 
been  considering?  and  I  answer,  no.  The  meta- 
physical   theories    of    Christian    Science  have 

46 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  47 

nothing  to  do  with  the  therapeutic  success  of 
the  system,  but  are  wholly  independent  of  it,  and 
must  be  considered  apart  from  it. 

Any  other  theory  might  be  substituted  for  that 
which  Mrs.  Eddy  has  formulated,  and  if  the  same 
general  lines  of  i)ractice  were  follow^ed,  the  re- 
sults would  be  similar. 

The  fact  appears  to  be,  that  the  Christian 
Scientists  have  hit  upon  a  principle  of  great  im- 
portance and  wide  usefulness,  of  the  very  nature 
of  which  they  are  ignorant,  a  principle  which 
they  associate  with  theories  which  are  both  false 
and  irrelevant. 

If  men  should  teach  that  electrical  energy  were 
due,  let  us  say  for  example  to  lunar  emanations, 
it  would  not  affect  the  nature  of  electrical  phe- 
nomena, j)rovided  the  conditions  necessary  to 
their  production  were  complied  with ;  nor  is  the 
character  of  the  therapeutic  phenomena  we  are 
considering,  affected  by  the  theories  commonly 
associated  with  them.  To  what  then,  are  the 
cures  effected  by  Christian  Science  healers  due, 
and  how  are  they  to  be  accounted  for? 

To  answer  these  questions  fully,  according  to 
the  conclusions  of  modern  science,  would  require 
a  treatise  much  more  extensive  than  this,  and  I 
can  only  briefly  state  my  views,  which  I  believe, 


48  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

are  those  of  the  most  competent  authorities. 
It  is  claimed  by  the  greater  number  of  those 
who  have  investigated  the  system  we  are  exam- 
ining, that  its  alleged  cures  are  to  be  accounted 
for  in  the  following  manner. 
\/  First:  that  they  are  almost  wholly  confined  to 
nervous  and  hysterical  disorders,  in  which 
the  symptoms  are  alleviated  by  the  quiet  state  of 
mind,  and  the  strong  expectation  of  a  cure  into 
which  the  patient  is  brought  by  the  nature  of 
the  treatment  he  receives. 

The  effects  of  fear  and  anxiety  upon  the  human 
system  are  too  well  known  to  need  comment, 
and  the  calming  influence  of  a  practitioner  who 
assures  the  patient  of  recovery,  and  ignores  dis- 
quieting symptoms,  cannot  but  be  effective  in 
many  cases.  Often  all  that  is  necessary  to  bring 
about  the  recovery  of  those  suffering  from  dis- 
orders of  this  character,  is  an  effort  of  the  will 
to  enable  them  to  throw  off  the  delusions  which 
take  the  form  of  disease.  Christian  Science 
healers  strive  to  arouse  in  their  iDatients  a  vig- 
orous resistence  to  the  idea  of  disease,  and  they 
are  frequently  successful. 

Such  efforts  are  not  confined  to  the  practition- 
ers of  this  school;  physicians  of  every  sort  recog- 
nize their  value,  and  strive  in  every  way  they 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  49 

can  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  their  patients 
in  their  efforts  to  bring  about  a  cure.  We  refer 
all  cases  which  fall  under  this  class,  to  the  action 
of  that  mysterious  influence  which  it  is  so  com- 
monly asserted  that  mind  has  over  matter.  That 
such  an  influence  exists,  no  physician  doubts, 
but  as  to  the  nature  of  the  influence,  and  the 
extent  to  which  it  may  be  employed,  and  the 
means  necessary  to  evoke  it  there  is  no  general 
consent.  To  say  that  mind  influences  matter,  is 
to  give  an  exjplanation  which  does  not  explain 
anything. 

It  is  as  if  we  should  hold  as  men  once  did, 
that  the  influence  of  the  moon  is  the  cause  of 
lunacy;  to  say  so  does  not  prove  anything,  and 
facts  must  be  adduced  as  evidence  before  the 
theory  can  be  entitled  to  serious  consideration. 
So  it  is  not  enough  to  say  that  mind  influences 
matter,  and  that  the  expectation  of  a  cure  has- 
tens it.  Without  doubt  the  statement  is  correct 
as  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  does  not  go  far  enough. 

Every  physician  knows  that  there  are  times 
when  the  administration  of  sugar  pellets  and 
colored  water  given  to  a  patient  under  the  be- 
lief that  they  are  powerful  drugs  produces  marked 
pathological  effects;  but  this  fact  merely  points 
to  the  existence  of  a  law,  of  the  very  nature  of 


50  WHAT  JS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

which  our  schools  of  medicine  are  for  the  most 
part  ignorant. 

Christian  Science  healers  know  no  more  about 
this  law  than  does  the  most  ignorant  country 
practitioner,  although  they  evoke  it  more  often, 
and  usually  with  beneficent  results. 

In  the  second  place,  the  cures  w^e  are  consid- 
ering, are  ascribed  to  the  ox)eration  of  the  prin- 
\  jciple  which  we  call  the  Vis  Medicatrix  Natures, 
!  /  or  the  healing  power  of  nature.  Disease  is  not 
y  a  normal,  but  an  abnormal  condition,  and  nature 
A  constantly  seeks  to  heal  it,  and  to  restore  the 
\    patient  to  the  normal  condition  of  health. 

The  most  intelligent  system  of  medical  prac- 
tice, and  the  most  successful,  is  that  which  most 
clearly  recognizes  this  power  and  seeks  to  assist 
it;  to  help  nature,  not  to  thwart  her. 

The  cures  effected  by  the  physicians  of  any 
school  are  due  in  the  first  place  not  to  the  rem- 
edies employed,  but  to  the  recuj)erative  efforts 
of  nature.  In  other  words  the  cure  is  due  to  the 
Vis  Medicatrix  Naturae,  and  not  to  the  physi- 
cian. In  saying  this  I  am  saying  nothing  in 
derogation  of  the  skill  of  medical  men.  Their 
duty  is  to  assist  nature  when  she  stands  in  need 
of  assistance,  and  the  more  intelligent  they  are, 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  51 

the  more  fully  they  recognize  this  fact,  and  con- 
fine themselves  to  this  line  of  practice. 

Sir  John  Forbes,  an  eminent  English  physi- 
cian is  quoted  by  Dr.  Buckley  as  saying:  "First, 
that  in  a  large  proportion  of  the  cases  treated  by 
allopathic  physicians,  the  disease  is  cured  by 
nature,  and  not  by  them.  Second,  that  in  a 
lesser  but  still  not  a  small  proportion,  the  dis- 
ease is  cured  by  nature  in  sx^ite  of  them;  in 
other  words  their  interference  retarding  instead 
of  assisting  the  cure.  Third,  that  in,  conse- 
quently, a  considerable  proportion  of  diseases  it 
would  fare  as  well  or  better  with  patients  if  all 
remedies, — at  least  all  active  remedies,  especial- 
ly drugs — were  abandoned." 

Again  Sir  John  Marshall  is  quoted  as  saying, 
"The  Vis  Medicatrix   Naturae    is  the  agent  to 
employ  in  the  healing  of  an  ulcer,  or  the  union 
of  a  broken  bone;  and  it  is  equally  true  that  thej 
physician  and  surgeon  never  cured  a  disease ;  he  /\ 
only  assists  the  natural  processes  of  cure."  ^ 

This  healing  power  of  nature  is  always  at 
work,  whatever  healing  system  men  employ,  and 
if  the  faithdiealer  is  deprived  of  any  advantage 
by  neglecting  to  administer  jjroper  remedies,  he 

1  "Faith  Healing,"  page  277. 


62  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCES 

is  more  than  compensated  by  the  fact  that  he 
never  administers  the  wrong  ones. 

More  than  all  this,  often  it  is  enough  to  re- 
store to  health  the  patients  of  the  Christian 
Science  healers,  that  they  are  told  to  pay  no  at- 
tention to  symptons,  and  to  regulate  their  diet 
and  exercise  according  to  their  own  inclinations; 
in  other  words  to  yield  themselves  to  nature, 
and  to  let  her  do  her  work  undisturbed. 

Then  too,  we  must  consider  the  fact  that 
many  diseases,  perhaps  most,  have  a  tendency 
to  issue  into  health  without  any  further  assist- 
ance from  without  than  is  given  by  good  nurs- 
ing and  proper  nourishment.  It  is  said  that  in 
no  inconsiderable  proportion  of  cases  even  tub- 
erculosis naturally  terminates  in  recovery.  Thus 
it  may  happen  at  the  crisis  of  disease,  after 
medical  treatment  has  been  vainly  employed, 
that  the  Christian  Scientist  steps  in  and  is 
awarded  the  credit  of  the  cure  for  which  he  is 
in  no  way  responsible.  And  lastly,  it  is  urged 
that  while  Christian  Science  gets  credit  for  the 
cures  which  are  thought  to  be  due  to  it,  that  it 
keeps  no  record  of  its  failures;  and  that  it  either 
ignores  them,  or  attributes  them  to  lack  of  co= 
operation  on  the  part  of  the  patient,  or  to  the 
atmosphere  of  doubt  hy  which  be  is  surrounded. 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  53 

All  these  explanations  of  the  cures  of  Chris- 
tian Science  must  be  considered,  and  they  ex- 
plain a  great  deal,  but  not  all;  and  when  we 
have  given  them  due  weight  we  find  that  they 
are  not  sufficient  to  account  for  the  undoubted 
facts  of  healing  which  must  be  credited  to  the 
system  we  are  considering.  But  here  we  must 
take  account  of  another  fact  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance to  our  inquiry.  It  is  that  there  are 
many  other  agencies  which  are  as  effective  in 
the  alleviation  of  suffering,  and  the  cure  of  dis- 
ease, as  this,  but  which  in  theory  have  abso- 
lutely nothing  in  common  with  it. 

Few  are  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  numerous 
well  authenticated  cures  of  the  most  stubborn 
diseases  are  annually  reported  from  the  Grotto 
of  Lourdes,  the  shrine  of  Ste.  Anne  de  Beaupre 
and  numerous  other  wonder- working  shrines 
and  holy  places  in  Roman  Catholic  countries. 

We  are  told  by  no  less  an  authority  than  Dr. 
Moll  of  Berlin,  that  fifty  or  sixty  patients  an- 
nually, are  sent  to  Lourdes  from  the  great 
French  hospital  of  the  Salpetri^re,  to  be  treated 
there  when  other  means  fail. 

Then  the  Mind  Healers,  the  Faith  Curers,  the 
Mesmerists,  the  Spiritualists  and  many  other 
sects  which   have   widely  diverse  theories  but 


54  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

employ  similar  methods,  have  about  the  same 
measure  of  success  that  the  Christian  Scientists 
have,  but  lacking  their  vigorous  propaganda,  and 
their  colossal  self-assertion,  attract  less  public 
attention. 

Besides  these  there  are  many  individuals  who 
adhere  to  no  particular  sect,  and  who  work 
along  independent  lines  who  have  done  wonder- 
ful things  in  attestation  of  their  alleged  divinely 
given  power  over  sickness ;  men  who  have  been 
alternately  regarded  as  saints  and  charlatans. 

The  list  would  be  a  long  one  if  I  should  write 
down  the  names  of  all  these  of  whom  I  have 
read,  from  Paracelsus  and  Prince  Hoenlohe  to 
the  zouave  Jacob  and  our  own  Schlatter.  These 
men  have  nothing  in  common  except  that  they 
all  appear  to  possess  a  mysterious  power  over 
disease,  a  power  which  none  of  them  has  been 
able  to  account  for,  but  which  is  without  doubt 
in  large  measure  real.  None  of  them,  I  believe, 
was  a  conscious  cheat,  and  all  of  them  have  done 
much  good  and  received  small  thanks  for  it  from 
the  world  at  large.  But  miraculous  cures  are 
not  peculiar  to  the  believers  in  any  one  religion 
even.  If  Christians  drive  away  disease  by 
prayer  and  the  imposition  of  hands,  Buddhists, 
Brahmans,  and  men  of  many  strange  faiths,  the 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCES  55 

Red  Indians  of  our  own  land,  and  tlie  black 
men  of  Africa  accomplish  similar  results  by- 
similar  methods. 

No  one  who  has  investigated  the  religious 
customs  of  savage  tribes,  can  doubt  that  the 
incantations,  charms,  and  medicine=makings  of 
their  priests  are  often  effective,  and  that  marvel- 
lous results  sometimes  follow  the  rude  ther- 
apeutic methods  they  employ;  methods  which 
differ  from  the  approved  practice  of  European 
schools,  as  fundamentally  as  do  the  methods  of 
the  Christian  Scientists  and  Mind  Curers. 

All  this  goes  to  show  that  the  theory  upon 
which  the  practice  of  metaphysical  or  mental 
healing  is  based,  is  of  small  consequence  pro- 
vided the  suggestion  of  cure  be  vividly  conveyed 
to  the  mind  of  the  patient.  It  is  simply  an 
invocation  of  that  mysterious  power  of  mind 
over  matter  whose  existence  we  all  recognize. 

We  may  say  that  it  is  all  a  matter  of  the 
imagination,  but  until  we  know  more  definitely 
what  the  nature  of  the  human  imagination  is, 
and  what  are  its  functions  and  limitations,  we 
explain  nothing  by  so  saying. 

Of  recent  years  men  of  science  have  studied 
this  subject,  and  have  arrived  at  some  remark- 
able conclusions.     They  have  found  that  with- 


66  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE P 

out  invoking  the  aid  of  superstition,  they  are 
able  to  produce  effects  indentical  with  those  of 
the  Hindoo  Yogis  and  Fakirs,  the  Medicine-men 
of  the  Red  Indians,  the  wonder-workers  of  the 
middle  ages  and  the  Christian  Scientists  of  to- 
day. 

The  principle  upon  which  all  these  phenomena 
are  based  is  known  as  the  principle  of  Sugges- 
tion, and  the  phenomena  are  known  as  the 
phenomena  of  Hypnosis.  The  German  psycho- 
logist Max  Dessoir  has  formulated  the  theory  of 
the  "Doppel  Ich,"  or  Double  Ego,  in  which  he 
teaches  "  that  human  x^ersonality  is  a  unity 
merely  to  our  consciousness,  but  that  it  consists 
really  of  at  least  two  clearly  distinguishable 
personalities"  rather  I  should  say,  states  of 
consciousness,  "each  held  together  by  its  own 
chain  of  memories."  He  shows  that  there  is  an 
unconscious  intelligence  in  man,  which  is 
evidenced  by  the  actions  we  call  automatic;  and 
that  there  is  an  unconscious  memory  distin- 
guishable from  recollection,  and  independent 
of  it. 

"  The  mental  processes  which  take  jDlace 
consciously  to  the  man  are  called  the  primary 
consciousness,  and  those  which  go  on  without 
his  knowledge,  the  secondary  consciousness;  the 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  67 

action  of  both  together  is  a  state  of  double 
consciousness."  ^ 

This  secondary  consciousness  is  constantly 
amenable  to  suggestion,  and  has  control  of  the 
physical  functions  and  sensations. 

Hypnosis  is  a  state  in  which  the  secondary 
consciousness  is  aroused  and  brought  to  the 
surface.  It  is  wholly  a  subjective  condition,  in- 
duced by  suggestion,  either,  as  is  common,  from 
without, — external  suggestion— or  more  rarely 
from  within, — auto-suggestion.  In  either  case 
susceptibility  to  suggestion  is  the  chief  and 
distinguishing  phenomenon  of  hypnosis. 

By  suggestion  we  mean  "  the  insinuation  of 
a  belief  or  impulse  into  the  mind  of  the 
subject  by  any  means,  as  by  words  or  gestures, 
usually  by  emphatic  declaration;  also  the  im- 
pulse of  trust  which  leads  to  the  effectiveness  of 
such  incitement."^  The  hypnotic  condition  is 
always  self=induced,  although  the  incentive 
which  arouses  it  is  usually  external.  This  con- 
dition has  many  degrees  of  intensity,  from  the 
light  hypnosis,  which  is  ordinarily  indistin- 
guishable from  the  normal  condition,  to  the 
profound  trance. 

>  Moll's  "  Hypnotism,"  pp.  239-240. 
2  The  Century  Dictionary. 


68  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

The  phenomena  of  hypnosis  in  its  lighter 
stages,  may  be  manifested  in  a  person  who  is 
unconscious  that  his  normal  psychical  balance 
has  been  disturbed;  more  than  this,  suggesti- 
bility, which  is  the  essential  characteristic  of 
hypnosis,  sometimes  exists  when  there  is  no  ev- 
idence that  the  subject  is  in  the  hypnotic  state. 

"Suggestibility  consists  in  the  impressing  on 
the  mind  of  an  idea,  image,  movement,  which 
the  person  reproduces  voluntarily  or  involuntar- 
ily; suggestibility  is  natural  to  man  as  a  social 
animal.  Under  certain  conditions  the  suggesti- 
bility which  is  always  present  in  man,  may  in- 
crease to  an  extraordinary  degree,  and  the  result 
is  a  stampede,  a  mob,  an  epidemic,"  ^  or,  I  may 
add,  a  wave  of  religious  enthusiasm  or  a  wide- 
spread and  intense  interest  in  Christian  Science. 

The  attention  which  hypnotism  is  receiving 
to-day  is  due  chiefly  to  the  fact  that  it  evidently 
possesses  therapeutic  utility,  and  it  is  becoming 
more  and  more  clear  to  physicians,  that  a 
thorough  examination  of  it  is  necessary,  with 
the  view  to  the  incorporation  of  its  beneficial 
methods  into  current  medical  practice. 

Many  authorities  hold  that  since  hypnosis  is 
a   subjective    state    in  wdiich  susceptibility  to 

^Bori8  Sidis,  Century  Magazine,  October,  1896. 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  59 

suggestion  is  heightened,  that  suggestibility 
exists  apart  from  recognized  hypnotic  condi- 
tions, and  has  an  independent  value  of  its  own; 
but  since  the  effects  of  suggestion,  whether  in 
or  out  of  the  recognized  states  of  hypnosis  are 
identical,  differing  only  in  degree,  the  opinion 
that  amenability  to  suggestion  characterizes  and 
constitutes  hypnosis  may  reasonably  be  enter- 
tained. 

Apart  from  all  theories  as  to  the  nature  of 
the  influence,  it  is  certain  that  suggestion  is  a 
healing  agent,  and  that  it  can  even  control  or- 
ganic disease,  and  cause  organic  changes  in  the 
human  body;  hence  it  is  certain  when  better 
understood,  to  take  a  high  place  among  the  rec- 
ognized agencies  for  the  alleviation  of  pain  and 
the  cure  of  disease. 

It  is  true,  as  has  been  so  often  stated,  that 
complete  insensibility  to  pain  may  be  produced 
in  the  hypnotic  state,  even  to  such  an  extent  as 
to  render  possible  the  performance  of  severe 
surgical  operations  upon  patients  under  its  in- 
fluence, although  we  are  assured  by  the  best 
authorities  that  such  instances  of  complete  anal- 
gesia are  much  rarer  than  popular  writers  repre- 
sent them  as  being. 

Now  without  going  further  into  this  subject, 


/ 


60  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

let  US  ask,  what  are  the  bearings  of  all  these 
facts  and  conclusions  I  have  cited,  upon  the 
curative  practice  of  Christian  Science  ? 

I  think  the  answer  is  evident.  To  me  at 
least  it  seems  plain,  that  the  therapeutic  phe- 
nomena of  this  system  are  simply  phenomena 
of  hypnosis  due  to  suggestion,  and  produced  for 
the  most  part,  in  ignorance  of  their  real  charac- 
ter, and  ascribed  to  fanciful  and  erroneous 
theories  in  metaphysics  and  theology. 

In  order  to  prove  this  proposition  we  must  be 
able  to  show  that  every  cure  which  Christian 
Science  has  ever  performed,  can  be  paralleled 
if  not  surpassed,  by  those  wrought  in  the 
strictly  scientific  and  material  school  of  sug- 
gestive therapeutics.  The  literature  of  this 
subject  is  already  voluminous,  consisting  chiefly 
of  works  by  German  and  French  writers,  some 
of  whose  books,  and  perhaps  the  most  valuable, 
are  accessible  to  the  English  reader  in  the  form 
of  translations. 

To  illustrate  the  practical  identity  of  method 
followed  by  the  true  scientists  and  the  pseudo= 
scientists  let  me  quote  the  following  passage 
from  Dr.  Albert  Moll's  ''  Hypnotism." ' 

"  Suppose  we  wish  to  cure  a  headache  by  arous- 

» p.  319. 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCEt  61 

ing  in  the  subject  the  idea  that  the  headache  is 
gone.  Spontaneous  reflection  would  prevent  this 
in  most  waking  people,  but  in  hypnosis  ideas  are 
more  easily  established.  If  the  subject  accepts 
the  suggestion  we  may  be  sure  that  in  the  hyp- 
notic state  he  does  not  feel  the  pain.  But  now 
we  have  to  prevent  the  return  of  the  pain  after 
waking.  Either  external  post-hypnotic  sug- 
gestion or  auto-suggestion  will  do  this.  We 
can  make  the  patient  continue  to  think  the 
pain  is  gone  after  he  wakes.  He  need  not  be 
conscious  of  this  idea  in  the  sense  of  remember- 
ing it.  On  the  contrary  the  less  conscious  the 
idea  is,  the  more  effect  it  will  have,  because  re- 
flection will  not  struggle  against  it.  Auto-sug- 
gestion  is  the  second  plan. 

"The  patient  finding  himself  without  pain  in 
hypnosis,  may  convince  himself  that  pain  is  not 
a  necessary  consequence  of  his  state,  and  this 
idea  may  under  some  circumstances  be  strong 
enough  to  prevent  the  return  of  the  pain.  The 
more  easily  an  idea  can  be  established  in  a  sub- 
ject, the  quicker  a  therapeutic  result  can  be  in- 
duced. And  the  deeper  the  hypnosis,  the  more 
easily  ideas  can  be  established.  Consequently 
the  deeper  the  hypnosis,  the  belter  the  cure." 

Now  I  submit  that  if  my  conclusions  are  even 


62  WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

approximately  correct,  there  is  nothing  to 
be  gained  by  burdening  the  practice  of  sug- 
gestive therapeutics,  with  a  metaphysical  theory 
which  denies  the  evident  facts  of  consciousness, 
and  opposes  itself  to  the  judgment  of  common 
sense  and  ordinary  intelligence,  and  with  a  the- 
ological system  which  is  at  variance  with  almost 
every  ^conclusion  of  historic  Christianity  and 
religious  experience.  Not  only  is  there  nothing 
to  be  gained,  but  there  is  much  to  be  lost  by 
erecting  a  novel  religious  system  about  this 
method  of  healing  which  is  certain  to  modify 
to  a  great  extent  the  present  school  of  medical 
practice,  and  to  x)rove  itself  of  untold  value  to 
humanity  at  large.  Anything  which  tends  to 
make  it  unintelligible,  and  to  keep  it  the  exclu- 
sive property  of  a  semi-religious  sect  is  to  be 
deprecated  and  opposed. 

To  what,  finally,  we  may  well  ask,  is  due  the 
fascination  which  Christian  Science  exercises 
over  the  minds  of  so  many  intelligent  and  culti- 
vated people  ? 

This  is  a  hard  question  to  answer,  but  we  may 
refer  it  in  part  at  least,  to  the  novelty  and 
strangeness  of  the  theories  which  are  advanced, 
which  in  itself  is  to  many  minds  a  great  attrac- 
tion: to  the  doc:matism  and  air  of  conviction 


WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE?  63 

with  which  those  theories  are  advanced;  to  the 
undoubted  reality  of  the  benefits  it  has  conferred 
upon  suffering  humanity,  and  last  but  not  least, 
to  the  mysterious  nature  of  its  operations. 
Added  to  all  this  there  is  the  suggestion  of  a 
mental  epidemic  which  should  receive  careful 
attention  at  the  hands  of  the  students  of  psych- 
ical phenomena. 


Date  Due 

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